1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a method of folding mechanism on a baby stroller to conveniently collapse a baby stroller and more particularly directed to baby strollers that fold with a single hand operation.
2. Discussion of Related Art
In recent years, several inventions have been developed in an attempt to produce an easy method of collapsing the stroller. One particular prior art worth mentioning is a collapsible baby stroller by Sutherland et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 6,102,431) involving a folding mechanism that uses a two knife blade followers to engage a spring loaded piston in an unfolded position. With this present invention, followers are not necessary, thus, reducing extra parts to be made. This will reduce manufacturing cost and time. Mechanism such as stoppers—gear locking slots, protrusion tab—latch and plug—hole positioned in strategic places described in first, second and third embodiments provide a strong locking mechanism to maximize the rigidity of the entire frame structure.
In the fourth, fifth and sixth embodiments, the gears are placed in face-to-face juxtaposition. In comparison with the collapsible baby stroller by Chih-Ching Cheng (U.S. Pat. No. 7,632,035 B2), the embodiments of this present invention provide a solution for better fixation of the pinion gears on the folding mechanism by eliminating the need of using rotatable members with apertures. This reduces not only manufacturing cost and time, but it also increases the durability of the gear component as one solid component, without having apertures on its surface. In addition, two of the embodiments of the present invention eliminate the need of installing the spring locking mechanism on the rear wheel support bar.